


Running with the devil

by killerweasel



Series: Even Angels Fall [3]
Category: Angel: the Series
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-06
Updated: 2013-03-06
Packaged: 2017-12-04 13:20:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/711202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/killerweasel/pseuds/killerweasel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is <b>Angelus</b>. Which means it's dark, dark, oh did I mention DARK?</p>
    </blockquote>





	Running with the devil

**Author's Note:**

> This is **Angelus**. Which means it's dark, dark, oh did I mention DARK?

Title: Running with the devil  
Fandom: Angel  
Characters: Lindsey McDonald/Angelus  
Word Count: 2,278  
Rating: R  
A/N: This is AU after _Reprise_. 

“Pull over.”

His voice was still raspy, but I could tell that this was an order, not a suggestion. I muttered something under my breath and he punched me in the shoulder. “We’re never going to get anywhere if you keep this shit up. We should have been halfway across the country by now.”

Hitting the brakes, I backed up his car until we were parked out of sight. “What is it with you and the fucking nuns anyway? This is the third convent we’ve hit since we left LA.”

“I like nuns.”

“And I like sinking my fangs into people that don’t have crosses and holy water within reach. I’ve still got scars from that last bitch.”

He smirked at me in the darkness, his teeth almost shining. “Don’t be a pussy, boy. If I remember correctly, you’re the one that wanted to raise some hell.”

I rolled my eyes. “I wanted to raise hell in Vegas. Did we do that? No, we didn’t. Instead, someone decided he had to kill as many Elvis impersonators as possible.”

The smirk grew wider. “Beat your score by ten though.”

“That group of little people shouldn’t fucking count.”

He got out of the car and stretched. I said something about him being a massive asshole before following. “I want to go to Roswell.”

“What’s in Roswell?” Angelus kicked the front door in and a smile spread across his face. “Oh, this is going to be fun. Can you smell that, Lindsey? All those virgins are sleeping in their beds, just waiting for someone like us to come along.”

“Aliens are in Roswell.” That caused him to turn around and give me a very odd look. “Okay, they’re demons. That whole alien thing was just something the firm told the military to pass along. But they have mages we need.”

He waited for me to get to the point and I could already see he was losing patience. “They can make it so you won’t get your soul back. It’s permanent, Angelus.”

I don’t think I’d ever seen him look quite so shocked before. His mouth opened and shut a few times, but no sound came out. “I don’t want your good half to come back. The first thing he’ll do is stake me for being an evil, soulless creature. Or maybe he’ll brood first.”

Angelus grabbed me by the shoulders, shoving my body against the wall. “Are you sure about this?”

“Wolfram and Hart made me research my ass off when it came to you. I don’t understand why Angel never bothered to get the curse removed. It’s a fucking curse. Literally.” That cracked me up and I laughed until he hit me. “Think of it as a way to block the soul for good. They wanted him dark, they wanted you loose, but they never had a fucking clue about who you really are.”

My back was starting to burn and I realized that he must have pushed me into a cross. I shoved him back, catching him slightly off balance and got out of his grip. “And just who am I?”

I chuckled softly before shoving the inner door open. “You’re Angelus, the former fucking Scourge of Europe, member of the Order of Aurelius, and a general pain in my ass on a nightly basis.”

\---

Two hours later, we were sprawled out on the floor. I hadn’t fed this much in ages. “I feel like a tick about to explode.”

“Just had to kill the last one, didn’t you? She was mine.”

“I didn’t see your name on her while I was screwing her brains out.”

He snarled something I couldn’t make out and was about to attack me when I thought I heard a noise. I motioned for him to be quiet. A whimper came from the closet, causing both of us to sit up. “I guess we missed someone.”

When I didn’t move, Angelus made his way through the room and curled his hand around the doorknob. He yanked it open, causing a young woman to scream in terror. She was trapped though. That’s when I saw her grab for something in her robe. “Watch it!”

My warning saved him from losing his eye. She whipped out a letter opener, carving his face open from eyebrow to chin. He bellowed in pain, clutched at his face, and fell to the ground. I was already up and moving. My body slammed into hers with a sickening crunch. She shrieked once before going silent. I could still hear her heart though.

Angelus was curled up on the floor, holding his hands to his face. The carpet beneath him was soaked in blood. “Kill her, Lindsey. Make sure she feels every second of it.”

My face shifted as I stalked back over to the closet. “You stupid bitch. Couldn’t just lie down and die like the rest of your friends, could you? Do you have any idea how much of a royal fucking pain in my ass he’s going to be until that’s healed? Do you?” I shook her frail body until her eyes popped open. Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth as she smiled at me.

“Lindsey, quit fucking around and kill her!”

My fangs tore into her throat and I felt her blood splatter on my skin. I threw her body to the ground, letting it slowly bleed out. Then I crouched down next to Angelus. “We need to get you out of here.”

“How bad is it?”

He peeled his hands away and I flinched. “Fuck...” I pulled my shirt off, pressing it against the wound to slow the bleeding. “She must have coated it with holy water or something. Even if I stitch it closed, you’re going to end up with a scar.”

I helped him to the car and drove off, trying to beat the sun that would be appearing soon. “We’re not going to make it to a city and you know it. At the first building we come across, I want you to pull over and we’ll hide until the sun goes down.”

“What about your face?”

“Should be a first aid kit in the trunk from when he used to drive this thing around.”

\---

I drove like a bat out of hell and got us a room at the first motel I found. It didn’t matter if the place was a dump; I had to take care of his face before it started to heal because otherwise that scar was going to be one hell of a mess. Normally, he was an asshole, but now he’d reached a point beyond anything I’d dealt with before. I blamed the pain from the wound.

“Angelus, if you don’t fucking stop squirming around, I’m going to drain you until you pass out so I can finish what I’m doing. Hold still, damn it!”

“Stop pushing so hard. Do you even know what the hell you’re doing?”

He howled in pain as the needle slid through his flesh and I’d finally had enough. After my face shifted, I sank my fangs into his throat. He fought me, trying to get me loose, but there was no way in hell I was going to let go. Even with him punching me in the shoulder and back, I kept drinking until the blows began to weaken. I was going to be black and blue for a couple of days again, but I didn’t care. It healed.

Finally, his body began to relax and I waited a minute before I picked up where I left off. I heard him murmur my name and I gave him a very small smile. “Fucking warned you I’d do it, Angelus.”

I was careful as I worked, cleaning the wound out with a cloth before stitching it closed. I knew there had been holy water on the damn thing because probing the wound had burned my fingertips. By the time I’d finished, he had a very neat row of stitches running down the side of his face.

Shaking his shoulder until his eyes opened, I waited until he focused on me before saying anything. “That should work. I’ll take them out in a couple of days, shouldn’t have a huge scar, but you’ll end up with something.”

As he sat up, he hit me in the face. “That’s for knocking me out.”

I slammed my fist into his ribs. “And that’s for being a shitty patient. You want me to order you someone to eat or will I do?”

His hand came up, gently tracing along the wound. Then he grabbed me by the shoulders, pulling my body closer. With a soft growl, Angelus’ face changed. He nuzzled along my throat, letting his fangs touch the flesh lightly. “You’ll do, Lindsey.”

\---

When I woke up, my body was sore in all the right ways. But when I reached out for Angelus, he wasn’t there. I sat up and looked around, wondering where the hell he’d gone. The sun wouldn’t set for an hour, so he couldn’t be outside. Then I heard something coming from the bathroom.

Getting out of bed, I ran my hand over my face. Maybe he’d ordered delivery after all and had taken the guy into the bathroom because it would be less of a mess. When I reached the door though, I could hear the water running in the shower. “Angelus?” There was no reply. “You’d better not be getting those damn stitches wet; I don’t want to redo them.”

I pulled the door open and blinked at the sheer amount of steam in the room. He must have been in here for a while. Coming across the bathroom floor, I jerked the curtain back. He was huddled at the far end of the shower with the water barely touching his body. I could barely hear what he was muttering over the sound of the water. Then he saw me and made a strangled sound.

“Angelus?” I turned the water off and then frowned. He didn’t smell right. “Oh fuck.” Damn it, why now?

“I’m sorry. I’m so fucking sorry, Lindsey. All that blood, all that pain. I can hear them screaming in my head. They won’t stop. Make them stop.”

I slowly got into the shower, making my way to where he was. They must have read about the nuns in the paper and figured out it was him. I wondered if his friends knew about me yet or if they even cared. They only wanted him back to the way he used to be. “Angel?”

He nodded his head before looking away from me. I put my fingers under his chin and waited for him to look at me again. “I can’t stay here. Your friends, they’ll kill me and I already died once. I’m not ready to die again. Call them, tell them where you are, and they’ll come for you.”

“They’re going to hate me for what I’ve done.”

“If they hated you, why would they have bothered sticking your soul back?”

Angel blinked at me a few times. I grabbed a towel and gently wiped the water from his face. “Make sure they get those stitches out tomorrow or they’re going to heal over and it’ll be a bitch to remove.”

I started to get up and he grabbed my wrist. “Don’t go.”

Shaking my head I pulled away from him. “You know damn well I can’t stick around. I’m not like you any more. The first time I kill or hurt someone, you’re going to feel guilty over it.”

“Lindsey... What you did to him, for him...” He stared at me before swallowing a couple of times. “None of the others ever did anything like that.”

“I know.”

I stood up and started to walk towards the bathroom door. Before I’d made it halfway there, he’d caught up with me and had pressed my body against the edge of the sink. I could have got away from him if I’d wanted, but I held still. Then he kissed me, making it last as long as possible before finally pulling back. “Take care of yourself.”

“Don’t fucking brood about me. I’ll know and come back to kick your ass over it.” Moving into the other room, I pulled my clothes on and looked for his car keys. The sun was probably setting right now. “I’ll call every once in a while, so you know how I’m doing.”

Walking to the door, I carefully opened it and peeked outside. The sun was just starting to sink behind the buildings. I felt his fingers on the back of my neck and leaned into his touch. “You ever lose that soul of yours again, come find me, we’ll make up for lost time.”

Even though he felt guilty, I bet part of him still enjoyed what we’d done. It was the same part of him that had locked a bunch of lawyers in a wine cellar with a couple of pissed off vampires and had chopped off my hand. Angel had more darkness inside than he cared to admit.

As I drove away, I looked back over my shoulder. He was watching me from the window of the motel and I wondered if he would be okay. Maybe I should have stuck around to make sure he didn’t do something stupid like dust himself. But what we’d done together, that was still nothing compared to what he’d done before. Eventually, Angel would move on. He had his friends to help him. He didn’t need me around to remind him of it.


End file.
